NEW YORK (AP) — Wayne Kramer, the co-founder of the protopunk Detroit band the MC5 that thrashed out such hardcore anthems as “Kick Out the Jams” and influenced everyone from the Clash to Rage Against the Machine, has died at age 75.
Kramer died Friday at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, according to Jason Heath, a close friend and executive director of Kramer's nonprofit Jail Guitar Doors.
"Brother Wayne Kramer was the best man I’ve ever known," Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello wrote on Instagram Friday.
The MC5 was more radical politically than most of its peers, and otherwise louder and more daring.
Kramer would lead various incarnations of the MC5 over the following decades, and perform with Was (Not Was) among other groups.
Persons:
— Wayne Kramer, Kramer, Jason Heath, Heath, Fred “, ” Smith, Rob Tyner, Michael Davis, Dennis “, ” Thompson, White Panther, John Sinclair, Brother Wayne Kramer, Tom Morello, “, Thompson, Smith, ”, Wayne, Margaret Saadi, Francis
Organizations:
Motor City, Marxism, White Panthers, Convention, USA, ”
Locations:
Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago